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| Bidenomics will be a focus of President Joe Biden's 2024 re-election campaign. (Source: Nerdwallet) |
The US leader assigned his running mate - Vice President Kamala Harris to travel across the US with the main purpose of calling for young people's votes, thereby promoting the impacts of Bidennomics when the American people still have many concerns about the country's economy.
“Bidenomics is the future”
US President Joe Biden used to dislike the term Bidenomics and once joked that he “didn’t know what the hell that was.” But he has recently embraced the shorthand for his economic policy and outlined a grand plan to restore the “American dream” ahead of his 2024 presidential run.
Republicans soon used the term “Bidenomics” as a way to attack the policy, but as President Biden realized that the policies were starting to have a positive impact, he adopted the term himself.
In a half-hour speech in Chicago at the end of June, the US President vowed to restore the “American dream”. According to him, the Bidenomics vision is a fundamental breakthrough compared to economic theory that has failed to meet the expectations of the American people over the past four decades, people working harder than ever before cannot get ahead...
Bidenomics is a central part of Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign. The US leader defines Bidenomics as a reversal of “trickle-down economics,” which prioritizes the interests of the rich over the interests of the middle class, giving the poor a ladder to climb while the rich still do their jobs well.
The “trickle-down economics” theory, which has been prominent in the economic policies of Republican presidents, is that the government reduces taxes and creates benefits for businesses and the wealthy, with the positive effects then “trickling down” to other levels of society. President Biden’s new economic doctrine will be to build from the bottom up – “what we have always done best, which is investing in the American people,” as Mr. Biden said.
Some good news for both Mr Biden and the US: inflation has more than halved since its peak, real wages have risen and employment prospects have improved (unemployment has been below 4% since February 2022).
However, Americans still do not seem to feel secure about the economy. The latest poll by Gallup Consulting and Analysis Company (USA) shows that 76% of Americans surveyed believe that the national economic conditions are getting worse. Polls by NBC News and ABC News also show that the approval rate for the US economy under Mr. Biden is only at 37% and 36%, respectively.
“There is a clear disconnect between the Bidenomics campaign and what people actually feel,” said NBC News pollster Micah Roberts.
This is said to be related to the main legislative priorities that Bidenomics has not been able to touch. And because the difficult “records” that took place during Mr. Biden’s term, such as inflation last year at times rising to a 40-year high, the escalating price crisis, labor shortages and supply chain disruptions… are deeply ingrained in the minds of many Americans, even as some difficulties have begun to ease, good news has appeared recently.
In that context, Director of the White House National Economic Council Brian Deese, who is also largely responsible for Bidenomics, believes that Bidenomics is the future and is necessary if the United States wants to achieve its goals such as combating climate change, carbon-free technology...
Pride and challenge
President Biden has explained that his philosophy is built on three pillars: public investment, empowering and training workers, and promoting competition.
On public investment, the administration is focusing on infrastructure, clean energy, and semiconductors; on training, the government will support workers to be better equipped for the jobs of the future; and on competition, Bidenomics will focus on reducing costs and leveling the playing field for small businesses. But the immediate and significant challenge for Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris is how to explain the recent economic policy packages, which have confused the American people and bewildered Western allies.
During a visit to New Mexico in August 2023, speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for a wind turbine plant project, President Biden praised Bidenomics policies for reviving manufacturing industries, as well as promoting new sectors, such as renewable energy. This will be a big boost to promote a stronger wave of manufacturing investment in the US in the future.
“Do you know what the total investment commitment from the CHIPS and Science Act is now? $230 billion. We continue to invest in manufacturing to fix supply chains, like the semiconductor shortage during the pandemic,” he said.
Government support may reassure US investors, but the fallout from Bidenomics is having a major impact on the international business community, which is trying to figure out how much their leaders should respond, especially given the simultaneous decline in global trade volumes in China, Europe and the US. Moreover, in the face of US policy packages, the EU has decided that “it would be unwise to go too far in reducing China’s influence” in Europe.
Where this context will lead Bidenomics is hard to say. However, the Biden administration's pride in its huge investment figures also points to the challenges that the US will soon face. In fact, even in the chip industry itself, the pace of new projects is still slow and operating costs are high, signaling that there are still many challenges for the US economy to rebuild its position in this industry, as well as other key areas in the coming time.
Long-term investments, Mr. Biden's efforts to rebuild American manufacturing, create millions of new jobs, help decarbonize the economy... will take time to see results.
After two years of big spending, Americans are still not feeling well about the domestic economy, and things could get worse if a recession hits before the election.
Therefore, whether Bidenomics will gain strong support from American voters in the 2024 election year is still unpredictable.
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